DIFFUSION: Basking in Ra's Sunlight

 Now for Cleolei!

[If you haven't, please read the intro post here to understand what this DIFFUSION series is about. It saves me an intro on each post.]

Here's my copy of the Cleolei doll, which came without their purse or belt. I ordered the purse later.

Cleolei, the combination of mummy Cleo de Nile and werecat Toralei Stripe, are fused based on the history of how sacred cats were to Ancient Egyptian culture, with the Egyptians revering them and often giving cats the honor of mummification. Cleo and Toralei are also bitter rivals, adding an ironic element to their fusion's strong conceptual harmony. I think their fusion as Cleolei is both subtle and overt, with elements of their costume copying certain pieces directly and other elements being more tricky to pick apart into the two characters' distinct elements.

Crop of the Mattel stock photo of the Cleo/Deuce two-pack that introduced 
each character in their signature designs.

Mattel stock photo of signature Toralei.

Cleolei's hair is a midpoint or blend of Cleo's dark brown and Toralei's red tones, resulting in a deep wine or plum color for the majority that's quite pretty. 

The style is very typical of Cleo, with the hair being long with bangs cut across the front. Like Toralei, even more like Purrsephone, and most like Meowlody, Cleolei also have a strip of hair on their left, orange on this doll, that was painted with black stripes.

Mattel stock photo of signature Purrsephone and Meowlody.

This orange streak is rooted to fall over the bangs and down the side of their head. These stripes only look good on dolls where the hair is stiff and gelled, since they were painted after the striped part was gelled. It's not the best visual effect in my mind, since I never like doll hairstyles that require gel in them for shaping and upkeep. It doesn't bother me too much that this Cleolei's hair was already de-gelled.

The Cleolei hair is pretty disastrous, though, as it feels really unruly and a bit coarse. You can see from the photos that it's a mess. It needs a boil very badly.

On top of the hair, Cleolei wear a golden tiara with a cat Skullette in the middle. This piece isn't related to either character's signature dolls, but it's an Egyptian piece with a cat theme that suits the fusion.

The tiara comes banded to the head with an elastic that doesn't encircle all of the hair. The piece stays fine on their forehead when the band is removed.

I initially thought Cleolei's head sculpt was simply Toralei's (and Catty's) repainted with Cleo features, but the 2013 stamp proved me wrong. Indeed, looking closer at the lips, cheeks, and chin, the head appears to be Cleo's face sculpt with the absence of her human ears and the presence of Toralei's distinctive cat ears on top! 

The blend of the two characters was so subtle that I thought they made the Toralei sculpt look like Cleo, but nope! New head, and it's actually closer to Cleo being made to look like Toralei! It appears that whichever ghoul has the front half of the fusion's name is the ghoul whose base face sculpt was used on their head, as Dracubecca's head mold had Draculaura's face, and Clawvenus's unique mold appears to have Clawdeen's face. Thus, I can guess that Lagoonafire's head sculpt is unique, using Lagoona's face with Jinafire's ears. 

As mentioned, the head has Toralei's cat ears on top, with the scarring of a tear in the left ear to indicate Toralei is aggressive and gets into altercations--a true punk bully alley cat. Because Catty Noir reused Toralei's head sculpt, this resulted in the uncharacteristic ear scar being transferred to the glitzy pop-star character. While Cleolei as a fusion represent the sixth female werecat character in the brand, I believe this marks only the third of four cat-eared werecat sculpts introduced by MH thus far-- the others are the one used by G1/G2 Toralei and G1 Catty, the unscarred rounder-eared cat head used by Purrsephone and Meowlody, which I believe was also given to Catrine DeMew, and the G3 Toralei sculpt. The CAM Cat girl and Puma boy had unique sculpts, but those didn't feature cat ears on top of the head-- like the Werewolf CAM, the Cat girl had barrettes to represent her ears so she wouldn't disrupt the CAM wig system and be limited only to a wig specifically made for her.

The ears of Cleolei each have piercings-- a golden pyramid-shaped stud is in both, and their left ear has a conical stud as well.

The skintone of Cleolei is an unusual peachy coral tone that reads as the blend of Cleo's pale brown and Toralei's orange color, and I think it works for the idea of an Egyptian cat humanoid, since the color feels like an unreal approximation of a human's skin, like a mix of human and animal. I don't know if the actual mix of their skin tones would be quite this vibrant, but the idea of it being a blend comes across. 

The faceup of the head pretty successfully mixes the distinct facial features of the component characters. Cleo's thinner lips, blue irises and eyeliner style are included, but the eyes are wider like Toralei's and have cat pupils. Cleolei also have Toralei's calico patch, and their face has two stripes on the same side, which are golden to bring in Cleo. Since stripes don't appear on Cleolei's body like they would on Toralei, they had to at least get a couple of the stripes she has on her face. I like the red tones of Cleolei's makeup. It reminds me more of G2 Cleo's more multicolored and vibrant earthy tones.

I am really not into Cleolei's outfit. 

For one, although they're a signature of hers, I've never been super on board with Cleo wearing a bunch of bodysuits. I understand their use to loosely resemble a full-body mummy wrap, but it just doesn't look as good to me as pieces that evoke Egyptian robes and dresses. For two, I think the teal color is really bad. I get it's been a part of Cleo looks, and it creates an appropriate stark fusion-clash pop contrast with the orange tones...but it comes at the cost of looking fashionable. 

The jacket itself seems to be mostly a direct copy of signature Toralei's leather jacket, but the jewel teal tone gives it a markedly less aggressive and tough look. It's the same piece except the colors, and Toralei's jacket had a silver plastic piece attached to prop up the collar in the back and add studs to the inside of the neck. Despite the similarities, the color gives Cleolei's a more high-fashion look.

I think this jacket could look really awesome on a restyled CAM Gorgon doll, though, given how scaly it looks! I'm not saying to stay tuned for that, but at this rate, you might as well. It's more likely than not that I'll eventually try it!

The bodysuit has a complex tessellated pattern of reclining cats and jewels. The colors all suit this doll well, but I don't love the style of the piece and the pattern blurs itself out too much for me.

Around their neck, Cleolei have a Toralei-styled scarf, which is just a tiny strip of knotted black tulle. This piece isn't going to work for my idea, and it's not substantial enough or easy enough to use for me to keep it.

In another blended fashion touch, Cleolei's left hand is molded with a Toralei biker's glove painted gold for Cleo. Their hands don't have prominent claws. 

Cleolei's shoes are heel-less heels with Egyptian cat faces, pyramid-studded straps, and textured coral platforms. They don't strike me as directly similar to specific shoes from either character, but they look nice, and they'll work for the character I'm shifting this doll into.

Cleolei were actually the first instance of sculpted bandages on a Cleo de Nile doll, well before they'd become the standard for her in G2 and G3. Their body has some pretty nice wrapping details, which extend to their tail!

On their limbs and tail, bandages appear in thinner strips, and on their torso,
they take the shape of undergarments.

It's interesting to me that they decided to sculpt bandages on the fusion body when Cleo's standard dolls only had them in her clothing, but maybe the outfit they'd designed took precedence over bandages being included so they had to go on the body. It's not the first mummy doll by MH to have bandage sculpting, since they did a full body for the CAM one--the most bandaged and mummyish mummy body of the franchise.

Cleolei are also unusual for implying a bra with the way their wrappings are sculpted. The standard body shapes and a few divergent bodies have underwear sculpted on, but never on top. 

Cleolei's tail is a little loose in their body, which disappoints me, since the tails are meant to hold a pose at any point of their rotation. I can probably tighten it up a little with hot glue inside the torso hole.

Alright, this restyle is going to be very simple. Cleolei are just going to become their own cat mummy monster, not a combination of two characters for the same effect. 

Initially, I thought Cleolei might need a white or black dress to feel more classically Egyptian. And I ended up unintentionally with two base dresses to put this character in!

Cloth aside, I knew this doll needed a classic Egyptian collar necklace, but there weren't any de Nile dolls that provided one as a jewelry piece...until G3! So I ordered a set of the G3 necklace and earrings as the best option for getting the collar. 

Cleo's been around way too long before getting
a piece like this!

For a costume, Electrified Cleo seemed pretty good, since her dress is primarily black and has cat mummies right on it!

Mattel stock photo of Electrified Cleo.

Hand it to G2 for making a clothing piece I could really use! G2 gave Cleo a lot more multicolored palettes with richer and brighter tones, which was fun, and this dress was no exception. 

The Electrified dress came a little folded from shipping, and the neon yellow plastic section at the collarbone had tears in it. I think the neon color is greener than I'd expected, but not too bad, and the collar covers up the tear in the fabric. I like the asymmetrical hemline and the blocky cut of the neon trim.

I think the dress paired pretty much perfectly with the pieces I had. 

The chaotic colors all correspond to something somewhere else on the base body and collar, and again, there couldn't have been a more perfect piece because of the cat mummy pattern. The dress had so many colors and coordinated so perfectly that I decided my first impression was right-- this doll required zero repainting to be complete and transformed!!!

I also appreciate the wide arm holes of this dress. For whatever reason, this doll's forearms are a little tricky to pop in and out, so with this costume, I don't have to do either!

Okay, then we get to the hair care. I was nervous about the prospects here, because the hair looked frankly awful as it arrived and it combed coarse while wet, but maybe I should learn to be excited by that, since recently, some dolls with coarse wet hair have had gorgeously silky dry hair--and Cleolei was one of them!

The hair came out tidy and smooth. I was legitimately concerned the hair might have gotten fried in places from the state of it when this doll arrived, but it's night and day now. No issues at all. This is the hair of Egyptian royalty.

The hair paint also remained, and while it's more spotted than striped now because of how it's scattered, that's pretty perfect for my plan-- she's a mummified cat monster, so her hair being spotty now reflects the unique coat of the Egyptian mau cat!

Photo I found online of a beautiful Egyptian mau.

At this point, since the transformation is so minimal and direct, I think it's fine to share the profile here while we're in process.

Maupet A'Duat

Monster Parentage: Well, isn't every cat a child of Bastet? But I suppose it would be more accurate to say I was an ancient housecat blessed by my goddess with a resurrection in human form.
Killer Style: I'm very much of my time and my culture, so I keep traditionally Egyptian...but I've embraced the fun and modernity of my new life as well!
Freaky Flaw: Old habits die hard, and I'm afraid some of my feline instincts still emerge at inconvenient times. Don't wear long necklaces around me, please. They're very battable.
Favorite Activity: I don't have a very human understanding of life back then, but people still find my insights on old Egypt very interesting, so I love the chance to talk about it. It helps me sort things out, too.
Biggest Pet Peeve: I revile anybody who seems ungrateful or unkind toward their pets. My people treated me like royalty, and that will always be my first and greatest blessing.
Favorite School Subject: Unnatural history, by far. It's been so enlightening and challenging and thoroughly useful to my second life.
Least Favorite School Subject: English class. It gets me a little out of sorts hearing so many turns of phrase and metaphors I'm not used to, particularly when they cast aspersions about cats. What have I done to you?
Favorite Food: I used to get lovely offerings of spiced meat scraps in my past life, and I've been chasing that taste for the entirety of this one. Hopefully I can find the recipe.
Pet: Oh, I think that would be entirely inappropriate.
Best Friends: Cleo de Nile, Toralei Stripe

"Maupet" is just the combination of "mau" and "pet", put together to sound like an ancient Egyptian name, and the Duat was the Egyptian underworld realm. As a resurrected cat, she'd be partially hailing from the Duat!

Maupet's outfit still wasn't complete, though. She absolutely needed a belt to finish the look, so I ordered one from a release of signature Cleo, and I thought the Cleolei purse was worth getting. 

I also tried out something else-- a basic white sleeveless dress by Kosucas on Etsy, which I'd ordered just to have around. But white linen simplicity felt good for classic Egyptian wear, and could be a look that took the doll more in her own direction. The Electrified dress looks so aligned to the original clothing that it might be possible to still call the doll Cleolei wearing it, and while I think the piece works, options might be good too.

The dress isn't the most ideally sewn for this doll, since it velcros completely down the back and the tail gets in the way...

...but it can fasten and the necklace covers the neckline beautifully. Even more importantly, Maupet looks classic, striking, and gorgeously Egyptian in the bare white dress, while the cut still feels modern and Monster High enough. If the Electrified look is harmonized chaos, then the white dress is Egyptian simplicity, and the doll is still perfectly color-coordinated all because of the collar. This outfit also needs the belt, and the black shoes don't work with it, so I'll need to find another pair for this dress.

But it's official. This doll has two wardrobes! 

Here's the belt. It certainly looks like a Cleo piece with the color and pyramid studs, but I can't find which doll of hers it came from--if it's hers at all!

An ID would be appreciated if you know this piece.

As it comes, I find the belt too long and loose around the waist.

Clawvenus's belt-coil bracelet was added since it fits this doll perfectly.

So I did what I previously did with my Witch CAM doll's belt and trimmed a little length off and bored a new hole in for the peg. This resized the belt and made it cinch the waist tighter and higher.

Then, the shoes for this outfit arrived. They're the Classroom line Mad Science Cleo sandals.

And finally, the purse arrived. It's a chunky gold piece with a teal cat head design on the front, and feathers referencing signature Toralei's purse.

And now Maupet is complete!

It's really fun to use the tails as hooks.

I definitely see a more quiet personality in her, but I think she looks great on the shelf this way:

I think working with this doll was fun. Despite their outfit being unattractive to me, I think Cleolei were a really nice and polished doll design, such that they're the only fusion of this trio that I didn't want to touch with a paintbrush in the process of reimagining! I enjoyed finding two different dresses for Maupet and I think the concept and personality of the doll work well as a separate unique character. This was a simple project, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Stay tuned for the final DIFFUSION!